Council Tax Reduction in Scotland: April to June 2017

Council Tax Reduction in Scotland, April to June 2017

This publication provides statistics on the Council Tax Reduction ( CTR) scheme, which reduces the Council Tax liability of low income households in Scotland. A CTR ‘recipient’ can be a single person or a couple, with or without children, since Council Tax is charged on a per-dwelling basis, rather than to individuals.

The statistics are based on data extracts from local authorities, and cover the time period April to June 2017.

Key Points

• There were 491,180 Council Tax Reduction recipients in Scotland in June 2017.
• The total weekly income foregone by local authorities on Council Tax Reduction in June 2017 was £6.5 million.
• The total number of Council Tax Reduction recipients in Scotland was 11.1 per cent (61,200 recipients) lower in June 2017 than it was at the beginning of the scheme in April 2013. In general, this fall has been gradual, punctuated by small rises each January to March. Since April 2017, reforms to Council Tax and Council Tax Reduction have exerted an upward pressure on recipient numbers, interrupting the overall downward trend.

Chart 1: CTR recipients in Scotland, April 2013 to June 2017

The number of recipients for each local authority in April, May and June 2017 is shown in Table 1. The total number in Scotland increased from 491,760 in March 2017 to 492,860 in May 2017, related to reforms to Council Tax and CTR which took effect from 1 April 2017:

• Local authorities were permitted to raise their level of Council Tax by up to 3 per cent, following 9 years of Council Tax ‘freeze’.
• The ‘proportions’ in Band E to H were increased, thereby increasing Council Tax bills for properties in these bands. A new relief was introduced through the CTR scheme, protecting certain below-median income households from the increase.
• The CTR child premium was increased by 25 per cent.

Table 1: CTR Recipients by Local Authority, April to June 2017 ^{1, 2}

Notes:
¹ Recipients are as at monthly count date. See Methodology Notes, Section 2 for more details. Available at
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Local-Government-Finance/Methodology/Ctaxreductionmethod
² Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. Components may not sum to total due to rounding.

Figure 1 shows CTR recipients by local authority for June 2017 in a treemap, using the data from Table 1. This allows a visual comparison of the number of recipients in each local authority. The five local authorities with the highest numbers of CTR recipients accounted for almost half (45 per cent) of the total for Scotland in June 2017. Glasgow City accounted for the highest proportion of Scotland’s CTR recipients, with 18 per cent (90,460) of the total. The other four authorities with the highest proportion of CTR recipients were North Lanarkshire, accounting for 8 per cent (36,920 recipients); Edinburgh City, had 7 per cent (35,720 recipients); and Fife and South Lanarkshire, 6 per cent each (31,480 and 30,850 recipients respectively).

Figure 1: Treemap of CTR recipients by Local Authority, June 2017.

Key:
1 = Eilean Siar
2 = Orkney Islands
3 = Shetland Islands
Clacks = Clackmannanshire
East Dunb. = East Dunbartonshire
East Renf. = East Renfrewshire
West Dunb. = West Dunbartonshire

The total weekly income foregone for each local authority in April, May and June 2017 is shown in Table 2. The total for Scotland was £6.5 million in June 2017; an increase of almost £250,000 a week in income foregone since March 2017, reflecting the reforms listed in the first paragraph on page 2.

Table 2: CTR weekly estimate of income foregone (£000’s) by Local Authority, April to June 2017 ^{1, 2, 3}

Notes:
¹ Recipients are as at monthly count date. See Methodology Notes, Section 2 for more details. Available at
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Local-Government-Finance/Methodology/Ctaxreductionmethod
² Weekly income foregone estimates are based on ‘number of recipients multiplied by average weekly reduction’ for each local authority and benefit type for the given month.
³ Figures are rounded to the nearest £100. Components may not sum to total due to rounding.